Lesser-Known Composer of the Month: Baldassare Galuppi

Wait, Who?

Baldassare Galuppi was born on the island of Burano, near Venice, and was the son of a barber and part-time violinist who played with theater orchestras.  After early instruction from his father, Galuppi studied with Antonio Lotti.  According to a common story, his studies with Lotti began after the perhaps predictable failure of his first opera at age 16.  Marcello reportedly commanded him to seek Lotti out, although in truth he may already have been Lotti's pupil by that point.

After some modest successes in the 1730s, in 1740 Galuppi was appointed to a prestigious post at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti, one of Venice's four famous schools and orphanages particularly known for their all-female musical ensembles.  The next year he was invited to London, where he spent a year and a half supervising opera productions.  He remained at the Mendicanti until 1751, by which point he was also vicemaestro di cappella at San Marco and collaborating on opera buffa with the playwright Carlo Goldoni.  The governors of the Mendicanti, apparently feeling he was spread too thin, declined to renew his contract.

In 1762 he was promoted to maestro di coro at San Marco, the most prestigious post in Venice, and the same year was also appointed maestro di coro at the Incurabili.  From 1765-1768 he was in St. Petersburg at the invitation of Catherine the Great, and on his return brought the Ukraninan composer Dmitri Bortniansky with him to study in Italy.  He resigned from his post at the Incurabili before departing, but his replacement having himself died in the meantime he resumed the post on his return.  He remained at San Marco until his death and at the Incurabili until the dissolution of its musical establishment for financial reasons in the 1770s.

Galuppi had three sons, one of whom was the librettist Antonio Galuppi, and a variously reported number of daughters.

Galuppi spent around fifty years writing for the stage and the church, so vocal music makes up the great majority of his works.  Between 1722 and 1773 he wrote over 100 operas, along with at least 20 serenatas, cantatas, and other smaller-scale secular vocal works.

Between his work for San Marco, the Mendicanti, and the Incurabili, he also created over 160 choral and solo vocal sacred works, including Masses and Mass movements, music for Vespers services, Psalm settings, and solo motets on non-liturgical texts.  He also wrote around 30 oratorios for the Mendicanti and the Incurabili, the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione in Venice, and elsewhere.  During his stay in St. Petersburg he also wrote 15 a cappella settings of Russian Orthodox texts in Church Slavonic.

Galuppi did write several concertos, mostly for keyboard, and pieces of chamber music for various combinations of instruments, but most of his instrumental music consists of approximately 130 keyboard sonatas, mostly in two or three movements, which may have been written mostly for his own amusement or use as a keyboard player.